Title: The Many Daughters of Afong Moy
Author: Jamie Ford
Release Date: 2 August 2022
Disclaimer: I received an ARC from the publishers.
Memory
is funny. What we remember can pop up at
strange times, and sometimes we don’t quite know where that memory comes from,
that one that flashes and gives that weird, unreal sense. We also know that there is intergenerational
trauma and memory. We are sum of
ourselves and our forebears.
Ford’s
new novel is a about those intergenerational memories and trauma. Starting with Afong Moy, the first Chinese
woman in America (and a real historical figure) and running though her female descendants. The novel’s time periods range from pre-Civil
to the near future. It is at once
historical fiction and science fiction.
This
type of book succeeds or fails on the weight of its casts – in this case Afong
and her daughters- and the ability of the writer to make not only the women
stand out from each other but not to repeat, what in essence would be the same
story. While there are some similarities
in the stories of the daughters -a desire to find a loved one, to know what
happened to a loved one (and it is possible that these loved ones are descendants
of a lost love of Afong Moy herself) – there is enough difference in character
for the women to stand. Dorothy and Faye
might be related but there are thousands of miles from each other, and not just
in a geographic and time sense.
While some
of the women find themselves caught in events of international or national
importance – Faye works as a nurse in China during the Second World War II, Lai
King Moy is in San Francisco during an outbreak of plague – but also during
less important, though no less real historical events. For instance, Zoe is attending a radical
school in England. The tragedies the
women go though are not the same tragedy and one could argue that some are more
tragic than others. Yet, at no point does
on feel that Ford is simply manipulating or try to manipulate the reader emotionally. There is no sallowness to the stories or to
the characters.
The connections
between the characters outside of the bloodline is though Dorothy who starts
experimental therapy to come to terms with the trauma that her genetic
bloodline endured, and in many ways reconcile the various threads that run though
the family. What exactly Dorothy does to
bring herself peace from the intergenerational trauma was handled masterfully. Ford does not sugarcoat or give the pat
endings.
Ford, should
be noted, writes women very well. Faye
is written extremely well, and Ford hands a mixture satisfaction and regret extremely
well.
The book
moves quickly, and the story does give one hope for a type of peace.
Comments
Post a Comment